Reign of Cyrus II

In order to determine when the 70 years of Jeremiah (25:11) ended and the Jews returned to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:23, Ezra 1:1) the Watch Tower needs to date the reign of Cyrus II, and his conquest of Babylon. They have therefore offered a couple of different sources:

Olympiad Numbers

According to the Watch Tower [1, p. 28] [2, p. 454]:

Diodorus of Sicily (c. 80-20 B.C.E.) wrote that Cyrus became king of Persia in “the opening year of the Fifty-fifth Olympiad.” (Historical Library, Book IX, 21) That year was 560 B.C.E. The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 485-425 B.C.E.) stated that Cyrus was killed “after he had reigned twenty-nine years,” which would put his death during his 30th year, in 530 B.C.E. (Histories, Book I, Clio, 214) Cuneiform tablets show that Cyrus ruled Babylon for nine years before his death. Thus, nine years prior to his death in 530 B.C.E. takes us back to 539 B.C.E. as the year Cyrus conquered Babylon.

The date of 539 B.C.E. for the fall of Babylon can be arrived at not only by Ptolemy’s canon but by other sources as well. The historian Diodorus, as well as Africanus and Eusebius, shows that Cyrus’ first year as king of Persia corresponded to Olympiad 55, year 1 (560/559 B.C.E.), while Cyrus’ last year is placed at Olympiad 62, year 2 (531/530 B.C.E.). Cuneiform tablets give Cyrus a rule of nine years over Babylon, which would therefore substantiate the year 539 as the date of his conquest of Babylon.—Handbook of Biblical Chronology, by Jack Finegan, 1964, pp. 112, 168-170; Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C.–A.D. 75, p. 14

Diodorus [3, pp. 31, IX 21]:

Cyrus became king of the Persians in the opening year of the Fifty-fifth Olympiad, as may be found in the Library of Diodorus and in the histories of Thallus and Castor and Polybius and Phlegon and all others who have used the reckoning by Olympiads. For all these writers agree as to the date.

Herodotus [4, pp. 204, Book I 214]:

The greater part of the army of the Persians was destroyed, and Cyrus himself fell, after reigning nine and twenty years.

Africanus [5, p. 271]:

Cyrus igitur anno imperii sui primo, qui Olympiadis quinquagesimæ quintæ primus item annus erat, per Zorobabelem, cujus etiam æqualis idem et socius erat Jesus Josedeci filius, expleta jam septuaginta annorum summa, populi Judaici partem aliquam primum dimisit, ut apud Esdram Hebræum historicum legimus.

(Cyrus was in the first year of his reign which was the fifty-fifth Olympiad the first year = 560 BC. [6, pp. 156, 288])

Uncertainty

This information alone isn't sufficiently precise to give us the date 539 BC exactly. As we discussed in Principles of Chronology there are many ways of reckoning a king's regnal years, and the method of counting used in Persia is not currently known [7, p. 199]:

Discussions about or references to dating methods in Achaemenid Persia as a rule assume complete adaptation to the Babylonian system. Babylonia's influence on Persia is no doubt momentous. Paraphrasing Horace (Ep. 2.1.156), one could justifiably say, Babylonia captaferum victorem cepit. But in this same spirit, Oppenheim observes that the historian's task should also be "to gauge the extent and intensity of the impact of the older civilization on the new empire in the Ancient Near East, rooted as it was in Iranian soil" (1985, 530).

Although Babylonian dominance seems overwhelming with regard to dating methods, this paper has scoured sources from all over the Achaemenid Empire in an attempt to detect signs of accession dating in Persia. In particular, the statements in Thucydides and Nehemiah raise a challenge as to how else to explain the sources. But the paper also reveals how woefully scant the evidence is. It is difficult to imagine what type of source could ever emerge to bring certainty in the matter here discussed.

So with information given by the ancient historians alone (of Cyrus reign beginning in 560/559 BC, and lasting 29 years), we can only really say he captured Babylon somewhere around 541-539 BC. Also, to further complicate the issue other sources give Cyrus a 30-year reign instead [8, pp. 275, XXIII, 46], this isn't necessarily a contradiction; it just depends on how the writers were counting the reign.

He was told by the magi, who are classed as wise and learned men among the Persians, that his grasping for the sun three times portended that he would reign for thirty years! And thus it happened; for he lived to his seventieth year, having begun to reign at forty.

Contradictions

Using the system of Olympiad numbers Africanus also dates the 20th year of Artaxerxes to 445 BC [9, pp. 135, Africanus III XVI]:

For from Nehemiah, who was despatched by Artaxerxes to build Jerusalem in the 115th year of the Persian empire, and the 4th year of the 83d Olympiad, and the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes himself, up to this date, which was the second year of the 202d Olympiad, and the 16th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there are reckoned 475 years, which make 490 according to the Hebrew numeration, as they measure the years by the course of the moon ; so that, as is easy to show, their year consists of 354 days, while the solar year has 365¼days.

(1st olympiad = 776 BC, 83rd Olympiad = 448 BC, 4th year = 445 BC)

However, this is in direct contradiction with the Insight book chronology chapter, and the Watch Tower's interpretation of Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24) [2, p. 463]:

The next date of major importance is the 20th year of Artaxerxes (Longimanus), the year Nehemiah received permission to go and rebuild Jerusalem. (Ne 2:1, 5-8) The reasons for favoring the date of 455 B.C.E. for this year as against the popular date of 445 B.C.E. are considered in the article PERSIA, PERSIANS. The events of this year that involve the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its walls mark the starting point of the prophecy concerning the “seventy weeks” at Daniel 9:24-27. The weeks there are clearly “weeks of years” (Da 9:24, RS, AT, Mo), totaling 490 years. As demonstrated under the heading SEVENTY WEEKS, the prophecy pointed to Jesus’ appearance as the Messiah in the year 29 C.E.; his death at “the half of the week” or in the middle of the last week of years, that is, in 33 C.E.; and the end of the period of God’s special favor to the Jews in 36 C.E. Thus, the 70 weeks of years closed with the conversion of Cornelius, 490 years from the year 455 B.C.E.—Ac 10:30-33, 44-48; 11:1.

Africanus also dates the birth of Jesus to 3/2 BC and his death and resurrection to 29/30 AD [6, p. 158]. However, this is also in contradiction with the Insight book which says [10, p. 58]:

Jesus’ birth would come about six months later in the fall of 2 B.C.E., his ministry would start about 30 years later in the fall of 29 C.E., and his death would come in the year 33 C.E. (on Nisan 14 in the spring, as stated).

For the Watch Tower's chronology to work it also means dismissing other reigns and dates given by the same historians for the 26th dynasty of Egypt, since otherwise Necho could not have been Pharaoh at the time of the battle of Megiddo or Carchemish.

In summary the Watch Tower doesn't justify how the Olympiad numbers given by the ancient historians for Cyrus' reign (6th century BC) should be trusted, when they are simultaneously rejecting the other dates that the historians provided for more recent Persian, Egyptian, and Christian history.

BM 33066

The Watch Tower says [1, p. 28] [2, p. 453]:

A Babylonian astronomical clay tablet (BM 33066) confirms the date of Cyrus’ death in 530 B.C.E. Though this tablet contains some errors regarding the astronomical positions, it contains the descriptions of two lunar eclipses that the tablet says occurred in the seventh year of Cambyses II, the son and successor of Cyrus. These are identified with lunar eclipses visible at Babylon on July 16, 523 B.C.E., and on January 10, 522 B.C.E., thus pointing to the spring of 523 B.C.E. as the beginning of Cambyses’ seventh year. That would make his first regnal year 529 B.C.E. So Cyrus’ last year would have been 530 B.C.E., making 539 B.C.E. his first year of ruling Babylon.

A Babylonian clay tablet is helpful for connecting Babylonian chronology with Biblical chronology. This tablet contains the following astronomical information for the seventh year of Cambyses II son of Cyrus II: “Year 7, Tammuz, night of the 14th, 1 2⁄3 double hours [three hours and twenty minutes] after night came, a lunar eclipse; visible in its full course; it reached over the northern half disc [of the moon]. Tebet, night of the 14th, two and a half double hours [five hours] at night before morning [in the latter part of the night], the disc of the moon was eclipsed; the whole course visible; over the southern and northern part the eclipse reached.” (Inschriften von Cambyses, König von Babylon, by J. N. Strassmaier, Leipzig, 1890, No. 400, lines 45-48; Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel, by F. X. Kugler, Münster, 1907, Vol. I, pp. 70, 71) These two lunar eclipses can evidently be identified with the lunar eclipses that were visible at Babylon on July 16, 523 B.C.E., and on January 10, 522 B.C.E. (Oppolzer’s Canon of Eclipses, translated by O. Gingerich, 1962, p. 335) Thus, this tablet points to the spring of 523 B.C.E. as the beginning of the seventh year of Cambyses II.

Since the seventh year of Cambyses II began in spring of 523 B.C.E., his first year of rule was 529 B.C.E. and his accession year, and the last year of Cyrus II as king of Babylon, was 530 B.C.E. The latest tablet dated in the reign of Cyrus II is from the 5th month, 23rd day of his 9th year. (Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C.–A.D. 75, by R. Parker and W. Dubberstein, 1971, p. 14) As the ninth year of Cyrus II as king of Babylon was 530 B.C.E., his first year according to that reckoning was 538 B.C.E. and his accession year was 539 B.C.E.

BM 33066 (Strm. Kambys. 400) (LBAT 1477) is one of the tablets mentioned in the Astronomical Texts section, and covered in my astro-tablets project. It does indeed date the 7th year of Cambyses to 523 BC.

The Watch Tower offers the Babylonian business tablets as the sole source for the length of Cyrus' reign as king of Babylon, the last tablets being dated to his 9th year. Counting backwards, Babylon must have fallen to Cyrus in 539 BC.

Problems

As we will see later in the Criticism of Standard Babylonian Chronology section, the Watch Tower using these sources as a base for their 'Biblical chronology' contradicts their own arguments.

First, the Watch Tower does not justify how it can use BM 33066 as a valid source of chronological information; a text which has a number of serious inaccuracies [11, p. 7], whilst rejecting the dates of seven other astronomical texts.

Second, using the latest dated business tablet as the only evidence for the end of Cyrus' reign doesn't make sense given that the Watch Tower also claims that the business tablets do not constitute a 'continuous chronological record', especially when the texts between Cyrus II and Cambyses II themselves overlap [12, p. 23].

References